Fruit Fly Behavior Lab

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Transcript of Fruit Fly Behavior Lab

Fruit Fly Behavior LabIntroductionThe fruit fly can be found throughout the world and feeds on ripe or rotten fruit and the fungi growing on rotting fruit, hence the name fruit fly.The fruit fly, also known as a drosophila melanogaster, are very small but despite their size, they have been studied by scientists for over 100 years. Behavior terminology: taxis - an automatic oriented movement towards or away from a stimulus. Chemotaxis: movement in response to a chemicalPhototaxis: phototactic response to lightGeotaxis: movement in response to gravity.The ExperimentDetermine fruit fly behavior and preferences for certain environment factors over others by giving them options in a choice chamber.MaterialsDrosophila flies (30-40)Dissection pins (2)Choice Chamber TubeFoam PlugsPermanent MarkerRulerGrapefruitAvocadoDatesLime

Image by goodtextures: http://fav.me/d2he3r8Maha ShaikhMontana BarrallDhaval ShahShirali ShahIn this experiment, we tested the fruit flies' preference of a high pH fruit to a low pH fruit.Acid vs. Base1. Avocado: 7.0 pH Grapefruit: 3.0 pH2. Date: 7.5 pH Lime: 2.5 pHHypothesis: If a basic fruit is placed at one end of a choice chamber and an acidic fruit is placed at the other end, then the fruit fly will prefer the acidic fruit. VariablesIndependent variable: acidic and basic zones Dependent variable: Number of flies in the acidic and basic zones Control variable: No ControlMethodsThe flies have to be moved from the vial to the choice chamber using their geotactic response. The flies try to fly up at all times.When they are in the choice chamber, they are to choose between an acid and base.The number of flies in the 4 compartments are counted at one minute intervals for 20 minutes to see which fruit the flies prefer.

Data/ ResultsChoice Chamber #1Grapefruit (Acid) and Avocado (Alkaline/ Basic)70% highly attracted to acid25% slightly attracted to acid15% slightly attracted to base10% highly attracted to baseBased on twenty minutes of observationData/ ResultsChoice Chamber #2Lime (Acidic) and Date (Alkaline/ Basic)25% highly attracted to acid13% slightly attracted to acid19% slightly attracted to base44% highly attracted to baseBased on twenty minutes of observationConclusionBased on the results, the hypothesis was partly correct.In the first choice chamber the flies were more attracted to grapefruit(acid) than to avocado(base).In the second choice chamber, more flies were found near date(base) than lime(acid).The fruit flies prefer acidic substances but at the same time can be found near the basic environment too.Usually found in the kitchen near vinegar, tomato juice, coffee and a few can be found near substances with relatively high pH. ConclusionError- some flies were killed in the process of taking the grapefruit out of the chamber. Due to the error the total number of flies decreased giving different calculations than the first trial.The results could have been improved if there were more number of flies for the trials.